MAG Just curious...gymnasts signing NLI...

[KCHAMP]

Congrats to all those gymnasts signing NLI! I am totally just curious if anyone knows...do you think all those that signed yesterday got some sort of scholarship offer?

How exactly does that work. Let's say a gymnast goes on 5 recruiting trips....do all 5 offer something and they choose one. Once that gymnast commits to x college, does that free up the money other schools were offering to now offer to someone else?

Thanks for any insight - just totally being curious!

 

[Quadqueen]

We had some boys sign their national letters of intent, and they received scholarships from those schools. I don't know how many scholarships each was offered.

 

[profmom]

I believe it's about D1 scholarships. If no one can commit until a pre-set date, it prevents the date from getting pushed back endlessly. It was a happy day at our gym, too. So proud of the hardworking scholarship winners!

The way I understand it, it's a little like going from dating to getting engaged -- you get closer and closer to the small handful of programs where there's a mutual good fit, and by the time national signing day rolls around, there's generally no drama left about which one you're going to choose. Once you've signed a national letter of intent, it's sort of like being engaged. You can back out before you set foot on campus, but it's more difficult. But there are lots of people on here who know more about this than I do; I only know what I've learned by hearing about it from others.

One of our scholarship winners had an earlier verbal from the school with which she signed.

 

[bookworm]

Once you sign the NLI, you can't back out unless there is some extreme reason (which I believe would mainly have to come from the school end) ...the NLI binds the athlete for that school year to that school...so you aren't engaged, you're married! The gymnast has to go to that school for at least the freshman year and can transfer after that year (if they want) , if the school "releases" her (i.e. schools generally don't want girls transferring to other schools in their own conference so will give a conditional release that doesn't include their own conference; others will give them a total release to go wherever they want) . Verbals, while legally non binding , give you an idea of how a coach operates ....we had heard a few stories about one program going back on their word for no real reason so when that program contacted our coaches about my oldest, we told them "not interested" and why so they would at least think about their actions going forward...

The NLI is basically the financial aid agreement and the girls re-sign them every year.